The highs and lows of my family's year in Florence. Enrolling the kids in Italain school, cooking the local produce, butchering the local language and lots of pictures of food, glorious food!!!

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Our Roman Holiday

It has felt like an eternity since I was able to sit down at my computer and see what the rest of the world is up to. Since we arrived in Florence just over a week ago we have had no internet connection until about 5 minutes ago!!!

Please enjoy my quick rendition of our family holiday in Rome before I bombard you with the day to day working of life in Firenze…. and just so you know, it feels so, so good to be here, life IS good x

Buon giorno!

It feels like an age since I last posted, but as I look back at the calendar and see our Roman holiday has been and gone in just over a week, and before that we packed up our lives and moved to the other side of the world- a wee break from blogging seems appropriate don’t you think?

The flight over was comfortable though hideously long, however, it had to be done. Alex managed 6 hours sleep out of the 18 hours of flying time, which isn’t too bad at all. Max on the other hand is extremely stubborn and only allowed himself 2 hours for the whole flight!! To say he was a bit of a mess 24 hours later would be an understatement.

With flights out of the way and the intense summer heat piercing our white winter bodies we set off into the streets of Rome to blow the boys minds. We stayed in the heart of the centro storico which is close to a lot of Rome you really want to see. This is a first for me as I am usually in a run-down pensione up by the station, so to have a little apartment in the heart of Rome was a dream come true. As promised, gelato was high on the boys’ list of things to ‘do and see’ and we ticked that off the list in the first hours of arriving

After a wonderful night’s sleep (and really enjoying stretching out) we started the day with sight seeing, pastries and a little walking…actually a lot of walking. The complaints were minimal as the boys were both eager and wanting to see more of the city.

Stopping for lunch was most welcome and with a trusting look at the ‘Lonely Planet Guide’ we found a wonderful restaurant out of the tourist trap with fantastic pizza and icy cold beers.

For dinner we decided to make a yummy salad at home as the ingredients were so cheap compared to Sydney food prices, plus I was dying to eat fresh tomatoes with buffalo mozzarella!

I would love to tell you the evening was an affair of laughter, fun and a bottle of wine, however, it was not to be. I added some deli tuna to our tomato and mozzarella salad for an extra boost and soon discovered it did not agree with me. For whatever reason I seemed to have an allergic reaction to the fish and ended up with a beetroot red body, heart palpitations, headaches, vomiting and welts!!

Woohooo, oh what a night!

Nic only managed welts, redness on part of his body and a headache, however, woke up feeling fine the next morning. I on the other hand wasn’t so fine and the worst thing of all it was Alex’s 8th birthday!!

Thankfully by morning the heart palpitations were gone and the headaches were controlled by panadol so I wasn’t a complete mess. Alex woke up to a few presents sitting on the table; so bursting with excitement he ripped into them and thus began a wonderful day for him. He put on a nice shirt, put gel in his hair and greeted the day with enthusiasm as any 8 year old would on their birthday!

Pastries we polished off in the morning and delicious panini were eaten for lunch while standing it a thunderstorm (a welcoming relief from the intense heat). By the afternoon all I could think about was bed so Nic took the boys to a ‘time elevator’ where they learnt about Rome in 5D and then ate more gelato!

Ice cream cake was Alex’s birthday request so we popped into the corner shop, found a Vienetta, whipped off the wrapping then Alex proceeded to ‘dress it up’ with beautiful sweet local strawberries (thank goodness). A wonderful birthday was had, he was totally excited with his very own ice cream cake, eating two slices while watching Transformers on dvd and I was even happier to wake up the next morning feeling 100% better.

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21 thoughts on “Our Roman Holiday”

WOO HOO .. so nice to hear your news and know you are there safe and sound. Glad the fish bug has left you all … and a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Alex from us all. Keep on blogging and I shall keep on reading. Much love xxxx

Alex is 8?! Oh my goodness! What handsome and grown-up boys you have. So glad to hear you are enjoying Italy so far (well except for the whole tuna thing… how awful!). Ahhh, I miss the gelato. There’s a place here that claims they use the same machines and ingredients, but it is not the same. Can’t wait to hear more!

I love that Gelato was top of the list…for me too! The flavors, the presentation, the colorful spoons! An apartment in Rome sounds like fun….I can’t wait to read more adventures from Florence! I pulled out my map when I read Inferno last week, so I am keeping it handy to see where your adventures are! Such fun!

Welcome back Baker family, just love your blog and the photo’s of our boys. Milly the whole fish thing sounds bad, be careful as it didn’t take me long to dismiss fish altogether! (sorry) enjoy every day, love to Nic and the boys. N&GD XX

Boys are so big! We can’t wait to join you in Italia! Clare wants to eat gelato with the guys, but she does not believe me when I tell her gelato is even better than our homemade ice cream! Happy travels!